Message of 3-15-2023

Published: Wed, 03/15/23

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Wednesday: March 15, 2023

Message of the Day

A tongue filled with laughter and praise is a reflection of a heart filled to overflowing with the joy of the Lord. What a joy it is just to be with someone whose heart is full. A soothing tongue, a tongue that can say "I accept you where you are," or "I appreciate your questions" without offense or bitterness, is a secure place someone can go for help without fear of judgment, condemnation or censure.
- Mike Hoskins

(Lord, may I be such a person this day.)

Readings of the Day

Dt 4:1, 5-9; Ps 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20

Mt 5:17-19

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

USCCB lectionary

Reflection on the Scripture

“What great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” —Deuteronomy 4:8

“God is Love” (1 Jn 4:16). Accordingly, He wants to give people the best, the greatest. Therefore, He raises up great people to do great things. God calls us to greatness because God is Love.

This obeying, teaching, and serving is so demanding that, like Jesus, we give our lives for others (Mt 20:28). Greatness means not self-realization but self-dying. Greatness is not being like Pontius Pilate, Herod, the Pharisees, or Jesus’ executioners, but being like Jesus on the cross. The road to greatness is the way of the cross.

Do you want to be great by Jesus’ standards? Even if you don’t, will you be great anyway for love of God and His people? Choose greatness. Choose obedience, teaching, serving, dying, and loving. Be great for Love (1 Jn 4:8).

Prayer: Father, may I please You by aspiring to greatness by serving others (see Mt 20:26).

Promise: “He sends forth His command to the earth; swiftly runs His word! He spreads snow like wool; frost He strews like ashes.” —Ps 147:15-16

Presentation Ministries

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Spiritual Reading

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY

www.innerexplorations.com

What, then, is faith?

It is an assent to the Christian mysteries because they have been revealed by God.

"But how do we know that they have been revealed by God? By reason?"

No. Reason alone cannot yield to us the heart of the Christian mysteries. It cannot compel us to believe in God or Jesus. It can, however, give us some limited but valuable knowledge about God's existence and the historical reality of Jesus that can lead us towards faith and show us that it is not unreasonable to believe. But that kind of reasoning is not faith itself.

"But if faith is not to be found by means of human reason, where does it come from?"

It is a knowledge born in and from the heart. In a mysterious way God warms and attracts the will so we can make a judgment by means of it. We feel that what is being proposed to us from without, that is, the presentation of the Christian mysteries about God and Jesus, is the same reality that is attracting us from within, and our hearts judge it to be good and see that it ought to be embraced.

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